Mike Brookfield Exclusive Interview!

French Vesion After/Version française après !

Mike Brookfield Mail Exclusive Interview November 2017

TvRockLive.com : Where does your love for blues/classic rock come from?
Mike Brookfield : My family are huge music lovers but not musicians. There was always music playing in the kitchen with my mum cooking or in the living room with my Dad and then upstairs with my older brother, as the youngest I couldn’t escape it. I kinda honed in on Eric Clapton in my early teens and watching him perform when I was thirteen had a huge effect on me. It was at the NEC in Birmingham and I rushed to the front when he came on, he stood right in front of me and played ''Crossroads'' on a Les Paul, it was almost a religious experience, a bit like in the movie The Blues Brothers when the Elwoods ‘see the light’ in the church and a beam of light shines down…things where never the same after that... Ha!

TvRockLive.com : Why did you move to Ireland at the beginning of the century?
Mike Brookfield : I met my wife in Ireland whilst touring with a West End Musical, I played Eddie Cochrane in it. Like all Irish, they navigate home so after a year or two in London we moved to Portmarnock in Dublin. It was a great move as we now have 2 kids and it’s a great place to bring them up. I feel I can be anywhere I want to be by basing myself there as we are close to the airport, it’s very easy to get to London, Paris etc. The Blues Rock scene is not the greatest there but I think is improving, not since Thin Lizzy or Rory has Ireland really had much to motivate them in Blues Rock, hopefully I can contribute to changing that and more will follow in what I’m aiming to to do, basically bring the Blues Rock genre into the modern age and somehow make the genre relevant to younger people who like guitar music.

TvRockLive.com : With which international artists did you work in the past?
Mike Brookfield : I have worked as a musical director via the TV station RTE in Ireland, performing with the likes of Lionel Richie, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart and many others. I loved meeting them and learning from them but now glad to be living a creative life performing my own compositions. I want to leave a legacy of great songs behind for my great grandkids, they can go on you tube in 2070 and maybe get inspired to play guitar like their great grandad did;-)

TvRockLive.com : Is there any bluesman or group you particularly like nowadays?
Mike Brookfield : Doyle Bramhall II is a killer songwriter and guitar player but also a singer and producer that can stick it to the best, so I think he is setting the bench mark really high which is very inspiring. I love all genres of music, from rock, Jazz and contemporary classical music, its all just sound to me. I am currently studying Psychoacoustics which is a fascinating subject. It helps you understand why you love music so much and why it gives you so much pleasure. Clapton will always be my man, with the obvious big guns like SRV and Hendrix not too far away from my stereo. New York guitarist Wayne Krantz is a player I can relate to because we had the same teacher in Charlie Banacos, he plays very contemporary Jazz and I am more about the songs but there’s a sense of adventure in his playing that I like and feel akin to.

TvRockLive.com : Tell me more about Eamon Carr, the lyricist you worked with for your new album…
Mike Brookfield : Eamon Carr was the drummer and lyricist for legendary Celtic rock band Horslips. He wrote the lyrics for this album so it’s a collaboration. I wrote, performed and produced the music to his words, Eamon is now mainly known in Ireland as a music and boxing journalist, he’s a real wordsmith as you have to be as a Journalist. It was sat fun writing to his words, some were blues tributes to our heroes like album opener ''A Message For Willie Johnson'', some political like ‘'Letter from The Devil’' and others just fun songs like ''High Class Shoes'' about dangerous woman. They all have a blues sensibility tuning through them, singing about life.

TvRockLive.com : I know you play in Paris and Cleon, do you intend to do more dates in France ?
Mike Brookfield : Yes we will be back next year, we have a bit of ground work to do but it is very exciting to play here as the audiences seem to really dig the songs and very attentive during shows. I am lucky to have people here that really like what I do and are helping my music get ‘out there’ and reach the people. I love France, as I’m also obsessed with road cycling and love to take trips to Alpe d’Huez and the Pyrenees in the summer to ride the bike, I raced the bike to a high level but you can’t serve two masters, for me now is all about the music, composing and playing the guitar
Interview via mail : Olivier Carle, images : Guillaume Frémeau (Live Report)